Tips, advice, and blogs by our Typepad community.

Posts from June 2012

Last month, we premiered a new look at typepad.com, complete with an updated site design and an exciting new Showcase. We made sure to keep the most important elements, like the great support resources you’re used to front and center, but with a beautiful new feel.

Now that we've all had a few weeks to settle in with the new look, we'd like to talk a bit about the Typepad lily pad, and why rebranding was such an important undertaking.

When we began the rebranding of Typepad, we made sure to look closely at the impact the brand had had over the years. We knew the iconic lily pad, seen by thousands daily, was a crucial element. We made sure to keep it mostly intact, but felt it could stand on its own without the box and stem. As a result, the new logo works really well at any size and in any situation, while still remaining firmly reminiscent of the Typepad we all know and love.

We really hope you like the new look! We'd love to hear what you think, so tell us all about it in the comments!

In the forum, Typepad blogger, David, wanted to know the best width for premium ads and any other design considerations he should be aware of when placing ads on his blog.

A 300px width is recommended for premium ad space, and the column widths on your blog may need to be increased to accommodate for the wider ads. The new pre-made themes being released to Typepad have the wider sidebars, including the Retro Theme.

If you prefer to use one of the pre-made themes or a custom design created with the Theme Builder, the space in the sidebar is reduced by the column padding. However, you can use Custom CSS to customize the column widths to fit any content.

The three column right classic layout is ideal for placing ads on your site, and we'll use this layout in our example.

To set up a blog with three columns with available space of 600px, 200px, and 300px, you'll need to add extra pixels to allow for the 15px of padding on each side.

At Design > Custom CSS, enter the above code in the text field and click Save Changes to update your blog with the wider columns.

By setting the main content, alpha, column to 630px, you can include 600px wide images and widescreen videos within the body of your post. Vimeo and YouTube set the embedded video width at 500px and 560px respectively. The 630px column width for your main content will easily accommodate the widescreen videos.

NAME: Marisa HaedikeBLOG:Creative ThursdayTYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2008WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: What started out as one day a week set aside to be more creative while working a 9 to 5 job, Creative Thursday has become a full time business featuring the art of Marisa Haedike, or as she likes to call it, a dream come true. Marissa shares her art and glimpses of her day to day via her blog and its companion podcast, allowing her readers to follow along on the journey through a creative life.

Haya recently started a new blog on Typepad, papillon. She realized that she needed some extra assistance, so she signed up for our Power Launch Service. We helped her set up her blog with all the features she wanted including an optimized blog feed through FeedBurner, social media sharing, and a nice banner. Haya had developed a unique design for her blog featuring a floating image at the side rather than at the top. We did a custom design service to set this up for her. Haya was very pleased with the results and is thrilled to get her new blog off to a great start.

Have multiple requests for us, or just need a lot of help? We can set you up with any combination of services that you need, or create a special custom service with multiple elements. Whatever you're looking for, we can do it. Sign up today!. And do check out papillon.

NAME: Natalya ZahnBLOG:Oscar Ate My MuffinTYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2009WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT:Oscar Ate My Muffin follows the life of Oscar, a Rhodesian Ridgeback with a fondness for discarded or unattended baked goods, as illustrated by his dutiful studio manager & agent, Natalya Zahn. Full of delightful illustrations and photographs, this blog offers a charming look into the life of a very good dog.

We've discussed branding and owning your blog before; now we want to share how you can take owning your online content to a whole new level with the integration of the Google Authorship feature.

With Typepad and Google working together, the Authorship feature gives you the ability to claim your post and blog content as your own. In the search results, your image and author name will appear as a byline to your content, making your blog stand out.

In order to enable the Google Authorship feature, and have your image show up in Google search results, follow the steps outlined below:

It can take as little as two days, or as long as two weeks, for your changes to take effect. The length of time it takes for your profile image to appear in search results is determined by a number of factors, and isn't something we can control or guarantee. We recommend waiting a few days, then using the Rich Snippets tool to verify whether the Authorship feature is in effect. When the process is complete, you'll see a display similar to the earlier shared image.

NAME: The Sierra ClubBLOG:SierraTYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2006WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: Since 1892, the Sierra Club has been working to protect communities, wild places, and the planet itself. They are the largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States, helping to provide a safe and healthy community in which to live, smart energy solutions to combat global warming, and an enduring legacy for America's wild places. Their blogs are insightful, engaging, and educational resources for everyone.

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